by Fred Moleck
Archbishop Desmond Tutu Comes to Pittsburgh
Last Wednesday and Thursday, the Most Reverend Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, visited Pittsburgh to receive a joint degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.To the best of anyone’s knowledge, it is the first time the two institutions conferred a joint degree.
First of all, to have two mega-universities agree on one person for such a degree and to confer the degree in a church—well, it was historical and surprising.
The president of Carnegie Mellon said that the axiom frequently applied to church ethos is even more true to academia—“But, we’ve never done it this way before.”
The degree ceremony at Calvary Episcopal Church was contained in an ecumenical prayer service that displayed the usual clerical plumage with the prayer shawls, stoles over albs, and the splendid vesture of the vergers, the choirs, Calvary’s priests, and, of course, Archbishop Tutu.
The music was as festive as it was prayerful. It made my morning, day, and the rest of the week.
The music ranged from the high-church anthem I Was Glad of Charles Hubert Hastings Parry to the sung Prayer of Africa.
The performing groups were the Calvary Choir, the Calvary Choristers, the Choral Ensemble of the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Choral Ensemble, and the Kuntu Repertory Theater.
Note the absence of brass and timpani. It demonstrated that “festive” can be “festive” without the instruments. It was festive without being overblown or pretentious—just like Archbishop Tutu and the organist and music director, Alan Lewis.
There is another dimension you need to know about the morning. It deals with the present struggle the Episcopal Church is going through.
If you don’t know about the possibility of a formal split in the Episcopal Church in the United States, then you haven’t been paying attention.
The current Episcopal bishop of Pittsburgh is one of the most visible leaders of the theologically conservative wing of the Episcopalian Church, who sees part of the Episcopal Church in the United States as straying from unchangeable tenets of Sola Scriptura and the prohibition of gay and lesbian unions and ordinations.
There is developing an alliance with them and the equally conservative northern African church. Archbishop Tutu is not part of that division of the African church.
What you also need to know is that Calvary Episcopal Church is suing the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh because of a dispute that would change church property rules so the congregations can easily leave the Episcopal Church—schism.
My mind was blown away.
I was sitting in an Episcopal church with guts. I was taking part in a splendidly diverse prayer experience, masterly presided over by the rector. I sang in Swahili. I had my mind and heart captured by Archbishop Tutu.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that, at the same time, the church housed the characters who could change the history of the Episcopal Church.
I sensed a gravitas that happens maybe once or twice in one’s lifetime when history is moving towards a crossroads.
The words of Carl Daw in the closing hymn thundered in my ears:
O day of peace that dimly shines
Through all our hopes and prayers and dreams,
Guide us to justice, truth, and love;
Delivered from our selfish schemes.
May swords of hate fall from our hands,
Our hearts from envy find release,
Till by God’s grace our warring world
Shall see that promised day of peace.
Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb
Nor shall the fierce devour the small;
As beasts and cattle calmly graze,
A little child shall lead them all.
Then enemies shall learn to love,
All creatures find their true accord;
The hope of peace shall be fulfilled,
For all the earth shall know the Lord.
© 1982, Carl P. Daw, Jr.
You can reach Fred Moleck via email at fmoleck@earthlink.net